What are the effects of racism on kids?

An interesting video from Italy exploring the hidden (or not so hidden) effects of racism and stereotypes on young people, above all on second generation migrants.

The "Doll test" is a psychological experiment created in the 1940s in the United States to test the degree of marginalisation perceived by African American children with respect to prejudice, discrimination and racial segregation.

In this video, the test was done again today with Italian children. Over the past few years, there was a considerable increase in the migratory phenomenon in Europe and specifically in Italy. On the Mediterranean coast, in fact, every year thousands of migrants seek a different future: some to improve their economic conditions, others are political refugees, fleeing from war zones, discrimination and ethnic, religious or political persecutions. 2015 was experienced in Europe as an invasion threatening to wipe out social, economic and cultural balance. The ever closer surveillance of borders can, however, also determine a risk, the on of definitively undermining any possibility of dialogue or integration.

In every European country, live today many second, third and fourth generation migrants, which are the citizens of these nations, like these Italian children. Yet, for many, they have remained "different", "foreigners", a dangerous definition which, in recent times, can even be illegitimately approached with the terrorist phenomenon. Without a serious change of perspective, both political and social, we risk dangerously distorting the perception that we have of the other, and that the others have of themselves.